The Busch brothers have never had a quiet relationship. Kurt and Kyle spent years racing each other with the same intensity they brought to the rest of the NASCAR field, and sometimes that rivalry spilled over. In the 2007 All-Star Race, they took each other out and reportedly didn’t speak for months before their grandmother finally helped them bury the hatchet on Thanksgiving.
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But for all the tension, the brotherhood always prevailed. Now, almost four months after Kyle’s tragic death, Kurt broke down while recalling one of the moments that showed just how much his younger brother looked out for him out on the track.
In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Kurt struggled to hold back tears as he recalled one of Kyle’s most selfless gestures, one that ultimately helped him win his final Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway in 2022.
“The biggest thing that I miss is the unspoken words when we would race each other,” Kurt told Cooper in the interview.
He spoke about the closing moments of the 2022 AdventHealth 400, when Kyle was struggling to hold on to the lead with Kurt and Kyle Larson charging behind him. As the pressure mounted, Rowdy realized he could not hold them off for much longer. His tires were “toasted”. But instead of fighting to the very end, he made a choice. If someone was going to win that day, it had to be a Busch.
Kyle never said anything. But Kurt felt the message in that moment was clear: “Go ahead, brother. You get him.”
Kurt admitted he probably could not have caught Kyle on his own if his younger brother had not given him the chance. The replay would never show what happened between them, but Kurt knew. After the race, he called Kyle to thank him, only for his little brother to brush it off as if it were nothing.
Cooper, listening to the story, summed up their relationship as a brotherhood bond that only they could truly understand. Kurt agreed immediately. They grew up loving racing together, made it to the Cup Series, battled each other on the track and still found ways to be there for one another when it mattered most.
And the rivalry was hardly without its close calls. Kurt and Kyle finished 1-2 four times in their Cup Series careers, a reflection of just how often their paths crossed at the front of the field.
In the NASCAR Americana documentary released earlier this year, Kurt spoke about how he and Kyle looked up to racing dynasties like the Pettys and the Earnhardts. They drew inspiration from those families as they went from humble, blue-collar beginnings to becoming NASCAR Hall of Famers themselves.
Together, they became the winningest sibling duo in Cup Series history, combining for three championships and 97 victories. Kyle also holds the modern-era record for winning in 19 consecutive seasons at NASCAR’s highest level, from 2005 through 2023.
For Kurt, none of that was diminished by his brother’s reputation for racing aggressively and getting his way. As he put it in NASCAR Americana: “My brother Kyle won everything and did it in his way. He went after everybody hard and fast. If you don’t like that kind of racing, don’t even watch.”
Kurt, his sister-in-law Samantha, and nephew Brexton were crushed, along with the rest of the NASCAR community, when Kyle passed away on May 21 earlier this year. In his CNN interview with Anderson Cooper, Kurt admitted that the whole ordeal felt like a “horror movie” because the tragedy unfolded so suddenly, despite them having the best facilities.
Kyle first started feeling unwell during the race at Watkins Glen, where he told his team over the radio that he needed a doctor with a shot post-race. It was suspected that he had a sinus issue. But the next weekend, he returned to the track in Dover, where he won the Truck Series race. Just days later, he collapsed during a simulator training session in North Carolina, was taken to a hospital, and died hours later.
Since then, Kurt, Samantha, and everyone who knew or had the pleasure of working with Kyle have shared heartwarming stories about the legend, painting a very different picture from the fierce competitor NASCAR fans saw on their TVs every week. A man who earned the nickname “Rowdy” for the way he raced quite literally gave up a win for his brother.
